AI & Industrial Transformation Lead
AI & Industrial Transformation Lead
At OSS Ventures we're looking for an AI & Industrial Transformation Lead to join our team.
TL;DR
Position: AI & Industrial Transformation Lead
Location: Paris (on-site client presence required)
Salary: 100K package + BSPCE
Contract: Full-time, CDI
Reports to: Senior Partner
Career path: OSS Partner · Founder · COO in portfolio company
You've spent 4-6 years in MBB. You've transformed factories on paper. You've never seen one of your recommendations live in production three years later.
This role exists for that.
OSS Ventures builds AI-native B2B SaaS companies for industrial operations. 22 companies built since 2019, 11 Series A, 4 Series B, 3,800 sites deployed across Europe and the US. Decathlon Pulse and Teknor Apex are co-investors and clients of the studio. We don't advise transformations — we own them, end to end, alongside the founders we back.
We're hiring an Industrial Transformation Lead to co-pilot AI deployments across the portfolio, sit at the table with COOs and plant GMs, and over time build a practice — or your own company.
What You'll Build Here
You will work directly with the COOs, plant managers, and operations teams of Decathlon, Teknor Apex, and all industrial groups that anchor the Renaissance Fund. Not as a vendor rep, not as a consultant, as the operator who owns the deployment and the result.
You will build:
A decision-maker network in European industry that you own and carry with you, not a relationship inherited from a partner, but accounts you've earned by delivering on the shop floor.
A real understanding of what it takes to scale an industrial AI agentic company, product cycles, technical debt, customer noise, the messy reality between a great demo and €5M ARR.
The foundation for whatever comes next: an OSS practice, a new studio venture, or a COO seat in a portfolio company. We mean this, not as a vague promise, but as documented trajectories already taken by people in this seat.
Trajectory
This role is designed for someone who wants to stop advising and start building! The real paths from here, already walked by OSS team members:
OSS Ventures Partner: leading a practice or a portfolio segment.
Founder: co-founding a new studio startup in your domain of expertise, with full backing and an anchor client.
COO: operational lead in a high-growth portfolio company at Series A or B.
We don't promise paths. We design them, then we hold ourselves accountable to them.
What's In It For You
Direct access to the C-suite of WW industrial groups, as an operator embedded in the deployment, not an external advisor flown in for a steerco.
The chance to co-build an AI transformation practice from scratch, with your fingerprints on the playbook, the methodology, and the case base.
A package aligned with Tier 1 strategy standards on cash, plus meaningful BSPCE in the studio with a transparent vesting and strike structure. We share the upside because we share the downside, that's the deal.
An environment where execution speed is the metric, not slide quality. No billable hours. No staffing politics. No 40-page decks for an internal review.
Required Profile
Non-negotiable:
4 –7 years in a Tier 1 strategy firm (MBB, Roland Berger, Oliver Wyman, Kearney, Accenture Strategy) with a strong industrial / manufacturing track record.
At least two full-cycle engagements in manufacturing environments: factory floor, digital supply chain, MES, lean/Opex, IIoT, not just sector analysis or due diligence.
Experience running steering committees with COOs, CIOs, or plant GMs at Corporate/Entreprise groups, and walking the line between executive narrative and operator credibility.
Structured problem solving and hypothesis-driven approach: you structure fast, simplify without losing substance, decide with imperfect information.
Proven ability to operate in ambiguity without waiting for a perfect brief.
Executive storytelling: you shift register from board to operator without losing the room.
What will set you apart:
Direct experience with industrial AI/data tools (computer vision, predictive maintenance, MES analytics, digital twins,...) not just slide-level familiarity.
P&L ownership, even partial. A multi-site deployment you measured in EBITDA uplift, OEE gain, or FTP improvement before/after, not in slide pages produced.
You've acted as a sparring partner for a founding team or operational leadership over six months or more, in immersion rather than from a steerco seat.
You talk about your missions in terms of what changed on the ground, not what you recommended.
You are passionate about technology and you advocate for the operators, not the C-suite.
Expected Behaviors
You act before you're 100% certain, and iterate.
You're as comfortable convincing a GM in a boardroom as spending two hours on the shop floor with a production supervisor.
You flag problems early, clearly, and with a proposed solution attached.
You instinctively know what can scale across the portfolio versus what's a one-off.
What Success Looks Like
At 6 months:
You have taken ownership of at least 2 active deployments and delivered a first measurable result
Clients see you as their primary point of contact, not a vendor rep
At 12 months:
You have produced 2–3 documented, replicable use cases
You have contributed to ARR expansion on at least one account
You have a clear view of what you want to build next, at OSS or in the portfolio
This Role Is Not For You If…
You need a fully defined scope before you start moving.
You measure success by slide quality, not by what changed in the plant.
You confuse "time spent on the shop floor" with "credibility with operators."
You think a 80% framing is more reassuring than a 60% decision made within the week.
You're looking for a team to manage rather than a problem to solve.
The idea of spending a full day with a production supervisor feels like a step down.
You think AI is hype and won't impact company performance for another 3–5 years.
About OSS Ventures
Our mission
Build and invest in technological companies that accelerate the pivot of our production model toward a desirable one. In practice: B2B SaaS for blue-collar industries — manufacturing, construction, logistics.
Our story
OSS was founded with a simple bet: go into factories, understand the real problems, and build software that actually works in the field. Six years later, that bet has compounded.
We've built 22 companies from scratch, deployed across 3,800+ industrial sites, with 200,000+ daily users and €40M ARR across the portfolio.
Our first cohort — Fabriq,Mercateam, Kraaft, MyC — have done or are entering Series B territory, with one exit expected per year starting now.
We're building 6 companies this year, 8 in 2027.
Two months ago, we closed a €44M fund — our largest to date. Our investors include Decathlon Pulse, Teknor Apex, Tikehau Capital, and Famille Peugeot.
We operate from Paris and Boston, with 5 portfolio companies now generating ~40% of their new ARR from the US market.
As far as we know, we're in the top 2.5% of all funds worldwide by performance. We think we have a shot at building a generational institution.
We have the capital, the traction, the team— and a different culture.
Our ambition
We will never be a 1,000-person organization. We will always be sub-50 people — high individual autonomy, high reach, high impact. The next 3 years are about proving we can be world-class at all three fronts: building, investing, and scaling portfolio companies into category leaders — on both sides of the Atlantic.
How we work
We build AI companies by working inside factories, alongside industry experts, solving problems where they actually exist. We are embedded — not external. We go to the shop floor before we write a line of code. We don't do remote conviction.
Four pillars structure everything we do:
Build (product-led, hands-on with founders),
Network (connecting startups, manufacturers, and partners),
Scale (fund capital + global expansion),
Transform (partner success, tangible measurable value).
Our values
Trusting team excellence — Trust is the foundation. We do what we say. We act as one team, not talented individuals. We give honest feedback and expect excellence in return. This is how the fund reaches top 5% performance.
Fail, learn, succeed — We make bets others won't. We tell truths others avoid. When we fall short — which happens — we treat it as data, not defeat. High risk is a feature, not a flaw.
We eat what we kill — Skin in the game. We eat last, hate asymmetry, and only reward results — not busywork. We win when our companies sell. No room for high-certainty seekers. Extreme ownership.
Compound the system — The system is the star. Few people, disproportionate impact. We automate everything, fire ourselves from low-value work, and only hire when unavoidable. Data first. AI first. Shared systems over individual ownership. Ego takes a backseat.
Build something the world needs — We're builders, not talkers. We define new standards, not follow existing ones. 200,000+ people use what we've built daily. Financial reward follows impact.
Think and do it quick — Speed wins. Good decisions made fast beat perfect decisions made late. We value thinkers who do and doers who think. Same person, not separate roles. Our companies hit €1.5M ARR by year two. The trade-off: we might move so fast we look like fools.